Thursday, November 19, 2015

John Coltrane’s towering masterpiece A Love Supreme has been
issued and re-issued in many formats and configurations since its release fifty
years ago. This most recent reissue comes as a three disc “Super-Deluxe
Edition” with the album itself occupying the first disc, followed by a disc of
alternate takes and studio ephemera from the recording session and then
concluding with a disc that has the well known concert from Juan Les Pins where
the band played the A Love Supreme suite in full. This period was the peak of
John Coltrane’s so called classic quartet with McCoy Tyner on piano, Jimmy
Garrison on bass and Elvin Jones on drums. One of the foremost bands in the
history of jazz, their level of empathy and togetherness was extraordinary. The
album itself is a four-part offering to God, where Part One
"Acknowledgment" opens the album with a slow building and reverent
statement of purpose, culminating with the chanting of the incantation "A
Love Supreme... A Love Supreme..." building to a transcendent state. Part
Two, "Resolution," has one of the most searing solos in the Coltrane
canon, and his entrance in the beginning of the song is hair-raising in its
emotional intensity. His saxophone cuts through like a beacon in the night,
with Elvin Jones' rolling and storming percussion at his heels. Jones leads off
Part Three "Pursuance" with a beautiful drum solo, showing all of the
rhythmic possibilities of the music, then Coltrane comes in with another short
solo that burns from within, before allowing McCoy Tyner a rippling and fleet
fingered solo. Coltrane's re-entry is amazingly powerful and his interaction
with Jones is like two forces of nature coming together. Garrison is granted a
deeply grounded bass interlude that serves as a connecting piece between the
two final movements of the suite. After the power and vision of the first three
parts of the album, Part four "Psalm" represents the hard fought
victory of Coltrane's spiritual and musical triumph. The music is slow and
haunted, but possessed by a sense of grace and vision that few musicians have
possessed. The second disc containing the alternate takes does offer a peek
behind the scenes, showing that this wasn’t just something that was beamed from
heaven, but an album that Coltrane meticulously put together, from overdubbing
the invocation to moving through many takes of “Acknowledgement,” looking for
the right opening. These alternates and breakdowns show a master craftsman
carefully and patiently putting the pieces together to build a unified whole.
Finally, the live album was widely bootlegged before its official release in a
previous reissue of A Love Supreme. It is unique and powerful music and the
band is vibrant in its performance. The yearning melody of “Resolution” is
heart rending, and the band uses it as a springboard for an epic performance
with Coltrane’s saxophone moving more deeply into the raw and scouring tone
that he would develop for the remainder of his life. “Pursuance” is twice the
length of the original, opening with an epic Elvin Jones solo, followed by the
whole band reaching for the urgent theme of the piece. Garrison is given ample
space to solo at length, which leads into the finale, a hauntingly beautiful
rendition of “Psalm” with Coltrane stretching himself and his instrument to
near the breaking point in search of spiritual grace. The liner notes contain
some nice photographs and interesting handwritten notes, discographical information
and an essay from Ashley Kahn.